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by icaruslaughed



Series: Suptober20 [17]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Jack and Dean bonding time, Light Angst, Season 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27131053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icaruslaughed/pseuds/icaruslaughed
Summary: day 20 of suptober
Series: Suptober20 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955047
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Home

Dean’s sprawled out on his bed, headphones blasting Metallica at full volume when Jack knocks on the open door and walks in. Feeling the bed shift with a new weight, he opens his eyes to see the kid sitting by his knees. He pauses his music, pulling the headphones around his neck, and sits next to Jack. “Hey, Jack, what’s up? Everything okay?”

“I have a question,” is his reply. A million possibilities fly through Dean’s head. It’s not like he has anything to hide, but with how shitty everyone is when it comes to communicating sometimes questions come up that he can’t answer because someone’s keeping secrets again. What could anyone possibly have to hide right now?

“Ask away,” he shrugs. Even if this turns out bad, at least he’s prepared.

“What’s a home?”

Dean freezes. He doesn’t really remember his childhood home. Maybe the occasional memory here and there but it mostly eludes him. He knows his mother used to sing him  _ Hey Jude _ and tell him that angels were watching over him when she put him to bed. He knows she used to cut the crusts off his sandwiches and that she made one hell of an apple pie. He knows she loved John and him and Sammy and that John also loved them back. It was a home, but the kind that’s bordered by a white picket fence. The same kind of home, of life, that he had with Lisa. He may have lived it, but it was never his home. Neither of them. Hunters don’t get that kind of home.

The second thing that comes to mind when he thinks of home is a cozy house with a roaring fireplace and a large family strewn across various seats, watching a movie together with hardly so much as a singular shit regarding the world outside. That doesn’t quite capture it, though, because  _ family _ doesn’t quite capture all of it. It’s more the feeling of safety he gets looking at that family he once had, back when they were just starting to worry about the first Apocalypse. Every single one of them has died and only three were lucky enough to come back. He misses that home, but it was never built to last. That feeling, though, that was. That feeling is something you never forget.

He opens his mouth to explain that feeling, knowing full well it’s been too long and the moment probably already passed. Oh well. “It’s- home isn’t quite a place.” Ok that doesn’t make a lot of sense. “I mean, it could be, or it could be people; it’s different for everyone. For me, it’s more of a-a feeling. Like you belong, I guess. The knowledge that everyone you’re with knows you and loves you for you and that they have your back no matter what. That’s how I’d put it, I guess.”

“I know what you mean. I think.” Jack tilts his head slightly in the way Cas used to back when he was still learning about humanity and it warms something in Dean’s heart.

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s the way I feel here, in the bunker. As a member of Team Free Will 2.0, I believe you said.” 

Dean outright laughs at that, nodding his head. “I didn’t think you’d actually remember me saying that.” Jack shrugs.

“Still, I feel the most...at home, I suppose, here with you guys. Like you said: I belong because I don’t belong anywhere else. I know you and you know me and I care about you and Sam and Cas a lot and I promise I have your back no matter what because I think you would do the same for me.” Those last few words were more a question, of sorts.  _ Do you forgive me for everything I’ve done?  _ Can _ you even forgive something like that? _

“We would all do the same for you. I know I would.”  _ Yes, Jack, of course I forgive you. I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick. _

“Good,” Jack smiles.

“Good.” Dean pulls the kid in for a hug and ruffles his hair. “I promise, you will always have a home here.”


End file.
